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Netanyahu's heritage plan `could lead to religious war'

HEBRON, WEST BANK–Leah Stremsky, 66, has travelled for more than five hours from her home in northern Israel to come pray at the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

She hopes that her prayers will help a friend in her forties get pregnant. She stands in a small chapel built above the traditional grave of the Patriarch Isaac. The chapel ends in a wood wall. On the other side is the Ibrahimi Mosque, the site holy to Islam.

"I would prefer that the Arabs were not here at all,'' she says with a laugh, gesturing toward the wall. They want to kill us. I would rather they were all six feet under.''

The large building that dominates the hill above the Old City of Hebron is divided between a synagogue and a mosque. It has also become the focus of new tensions after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week declared that the Tomb of the Patriarchs (or Cave of the Patriarchs), along with Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem, will be added to a list of Israeli national heritage sites.

The decision sparked days of rioting here.

"Playing with religion is very dangerous,'' warned Hebron mayor Khaled Osaily. "Any changes in the status quo could snowball."

Osaily has focused his efforts on building a soccer stadium and trying to find jobs for Hebron's jobless residents. He has good contacts with Israelis and supports the two-state solution of a Palestinian state next to Israel. Yet he is furious about Israel's decision.

"They want rehabilitate the inside and claim it is a Jewish place to control what is going on here,'' he said. "But until now the municipality and the Waqf (the Muslim religious authorities) were in control."

When pressed, Osaily would not say whether he would allow Jewish worship to continue if Hebron became part of a Palestinian state, saying that the site would be open for "all humankind'' to visit.

Jewish settler spokesman David Wilder says the decision to declare Hebron a Jewish heritage site is "excellent.''

Wilder says that according to Jewish tradition, the forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob along with their wives are buried in a cave deep beneath the site. "If this isn't Jewish heritage I don't know what is,'' he said.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas warned Netanyahu that his decision "could lead to a religious war.'' Condemnation also came from the Arab League and the United Nations. Israeli officials insisted that the international community is overreacting.

"This is a mendacious and hypocritical campaign,'' read a statement from Netanyahu's office. "The state of Israel is committed to freedom of religion for worshippers of all faiths at the holy places and thus it acts in practice."

He said the sites "certainly deserve preservation and rehabilitation.''

In Hebron, 800 Jewish settlers live amid 180,000 Palestinians. The city is divided into two sections; H-1, which is under Palestinian civilian control and H-2, under Israeli control but including some 70,000 Palestinians. It has long been a flashpoint of violence. The religious site was not always divided. In 1994, a Jewish doctor from the nearby Kiryat Arba settlement entered the mosque during morning prayers and opened fire, killing 29 worshippers. That incident prompted the division into two separate sites.

Security to enter each side is tight, with multiple metal detectors and metal turnstiles. On the Jewish side, there's a special area to check your guns as they are not permitted inside. Ten days each year, for special holidays, one side has access to the whole site.

It was quiet but tense in Hebron on Wednesday. Israeli security officials say they believe the crisis has passed. But Palestinians say they won't stop fighting until Israel rescinds its decision.

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